“On one or more occasions from March through April 2007, a then-employee of Cantor simultaneously entered orders with certain floor brokers from two different floor brokerage operations to buy and sell” gasoline futures for the same quantity, price and contract month, the Washington-based CFTC said today in a statement.

The employee prearranged the purchase and sale of hundreds of gasoline contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the commission said. Wash sales, buying shares at one broker while simultaneously selling through another, may be designed to make trading appear more active than it really is.

Cantor neither admitted nor denied the commission’s findings, according to the CFTC order. Sandra Lee, a spokeswoman for the New York-based firm, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.